While the basic idea of a vending machines receiving electrical power from one or more photovoltaic (PV) panels has been tried in various forms, actually producing a refrigerated vending machine that can rely solely or predominantly on solar power in a reasonable range of climates has proven quite a bit more difficult. Vending machines with relatively small numbers of PV panels mounted thereto typically rely heavily on external AC power to supplement solar power generation. On the other hand, machines coupled with much large PV panel arrays might produce sufficient power to run the machine, but cost and portability issues make this an unreasonable solution for many vending machine locations.